New SheevaPlug Install spews unicode on boot

[mcsSolutions]

I received a Sheevaplug in July 2011 from GlobalScale and installed the current Arch Linux per http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/sheevaplug. No difficulties on the creation process per the instructions in the readme.txt, but as the boot starts following the message uncompressing ..., the console spews unreadable unicode characters for about 1/2 minute and then becomes non responsive. The same result occurs when insalling on mmc or nand. uboot is Marvell 3.4.19. If the mmc is removed and viewed on an Linux PC the two partitions look to be reasonable so it appears the install onto the mmc was successful.

Searching the web the only thing I could find with similiar behavior described seemed to be related to jffs2 vs. ubifs http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?action=profile;u=1463;sa=showPosts and that does not seem to be applicable here. I also have same behavior for nand and mmc boots.

Is there an issue with the image http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM ... est.tar.gz? Is there an alternate? Suggestions on an approach to resolve?

[WarheadsSE]

Verify that the console parameter for the kernel is set correctly, as I have seen this behavior before, and this setting was the culprit. I can not say with certainty that this is the absolute fix, but it has worked in the past for this apparent symptom.

[mcsSolutions]

I looked at the console environment variable and it is set to a0000. I tried to change it to ttys0,115200 and did a saveenv. On boot command it gets reset back to a000 and same boot failure with unicode characters spewing. bootargs_console has console set to ttyS0,115200 so I do not know where the a0000 is comming from. The other things I did to the environment is to set mainlineLinux=yes and arcNumber=2097 based upon google search information.

The environment printout is

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
Marvell>> printenv
baudrate=115200
loads_echo=0
ipaddr=10.4.50.165
serverip=10.4.50.5
rootpath=/mnt/ARM_FS/
netmask=255.255.255.0
console=a0000
e=ttyS0,115200 mtdparts=nand_mtd:0xc0000@0(uboot)ro,0x1ff00000@0x100000(root)
CASset=min
MALLOC_len=1
ethprime=egiga0
bootargs_end=:::DB88FXX81:eth0:none
image_name=uImage
standalone=fsload 0x2000000 $(image_name);setenv bootargs $(console) root=/dev/mtdblock0 rw ip=$(ipaddr):$(serverip)$(bootargs_end) $(mvPhoneConfig); bootm 0x2000000;
ethmtu=1500
mvPhoneConfig=mv_phone_config=dev0:fxs,dev1:fxs
mvNetConfig=mv_net_config=(00:11:88:0f:62:81,0:1:2:3),mtu=1500
usb0Mode=host
yuk_ethaddr=00:00:00:EE:51:81
nandEcc=1bit
netretry=no
rcvrip=169.254.100.100
loadaddr=0x02000000
autoload=no
ethact=egiga0
bootargs_root=root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootdelay=5
ethaddr=F0:AD:4E:00:XX:XX (altered for posting)
real_bootcmd=setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(bootargs_root); mmcinit; ext2load mmc 0:1 0x800000 /uImage; bootm 0x00800000
bootargs_console=console=ttyS0,115200
recover1=setenv mainlineLinux yes; setenv arcNumber 2097; setenv bootcmd run recover2; saveenv; reset
recover2=run recover3; setenv bootcmd $(real_bootcmd); saveenv; setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk=0x01100000,8M install_type=mmc; bootm 0x00800000 0x01100000
recover3=usb start; fatload usb 0 0x00800000 uImage; fatload usb 0 0x01100000 initrd
arcNumber=2097
bootcmd=setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(bootargs_root); mmcinit; ext2load mmc 0:1 0x800000 /uImage; bootm 0x00800000
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
nandEnvBase=a0000
mainlineLinux=yes
enaMonExt=no
enaCpuStream=no
enaWrAllo=no
pexMode=RC
disL2Cache=no
setL2CacheWT=yes
disL2Prefetch=yes
enaICPref=yes
enaDCPref=yes
sata_dma_mode=yes
netbsd_en=no
vxworks_en=no
bootdelay=3
disaMvPnp=no
enaAutoRecovery=yes
pcieTune=no

Environment size: 1783/131068 bytes
')

[mcsSolutions]

The only kernel that I have attempted is from http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/sheevaplug which is described as "Arch Linux Arm latest". I have tried the install from both Linux and Windows hosts and have not had success. I often had to proceed with mmcinit followed by boot from uboot for the SD so I have only been trying the nand installs of late.

[BnBorg]

Wow. Your environment sure looks familiar. Mine ends up exactly the same.

Although I don't get any unicode, I still can't boot. I keep trying various combinations of different kernels and different versions of U-Boot. Usually it just freezes after it loads the kernel and says it is booting it. Once is a while I see the kernel messages while loading, ending in a panic mentioning modules and saying that it can't find init.

Where was that the really old kernel installed didn't match the modules? Did you mean the one the OP put on the SD card, or was it the one on archlinux.org/platforms/archv5? Or did you mean there is a mismatch on the nand on currently shipping SheevaPlugs? I just got my SheevaPlug the week before last.

Never mind. I just read the announcement in the Community area at the top, about a new upload yesterday. Thank you.

[mcsSolutions]

Version 1.1 works so much better. No more issues with the install in nand and while I have not tried onto SD I do not expect any there either.